10 year Anniversary of the UNGPs
No other area of human rights has grown so quickly as the business and human rights field. This year marked 10 years since the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council. The 10-year anniversary and the passing of the author of the UNGPs, John G. Ruggie, provides us an opportunity to reflect on what the UNGPs have achieved in the past decade and to take stock of how business
and human rights affairs stand today.
Panel discussion
This seminar will feature a panel discussion with several experts in the field:
- Gentian Zyberi, The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) (Moderator)
- Dinie Suryadini Mukti Arief, NCHR (Speaker)
- Kristel Manal Tonstad, Norges kontaktpunkt for ansvarlig næringsliv (Speaker)
- Kim Gabrielli, UN Global Compact (Speaker)
- Heidi Furustøl (etiskhandel.no), Etisk Handel Norge (Speaker)
Coffee and light lunch will be provided to all attendants. This will be a hybrid event, and anyone who prefers can attend via Zoom.
The registration deadline is December 5th.
For any questions about the event, please contact Victoria Skeie (victoria.skeie@nchr.uio.no).
Clarifying businesses' human rights responsibilities
John G. Ruggie created a common language for all stakeholders; clarifying the duties and responsibilities of states and businesses to respect human rights. Famously, he created the three pillars to protect, respect and remedy.
The UNGPs have brought the question of businesses' responsibility towards human rights to the forefront of discussions on corporate social responsibility. They also provide a common framework and language to discuss the human rights dilemmas that can arise from business activity.
Future implementation
However, contentious business activity still poses a threat to human rights. Corporations have been able to utilize this framework to whitewash their reputations by publicly endorsing the UNGPs and other international frameworks and guidelines. Will the next decade of business and human rights continue to entrust corporations to carry out their human rights reporting using the due diligence analyses they themselves designed?
In many ways, the business and human rights field will be defined by the next decade and how we tackle current challenges with implementation. What needs must be met in the next 10 years in shaping either a new covenant on business and human rights or implementing domestic global supply chain transparency laws, or both? Taking stock of the progress made so far, this seminar will discuss what needs to happen in the next decade to ensure human rights abuses by corporations are mitigated and corporations held accountable when adverse impacts occur.